Success Coaching: How to Stop Procrastinating

May 11, 2012 - PRLog -- Are You Continually Late for Work?

Are you one of those time-challenged people?  You know the type, the people who realize that they have an appointment and think that they have enough time to send off one more email, or throw in a batch of laundry (if they work at home), only to find that they got lost in doing that task and didn’t pay attention to the clock, or thought that they could make it to their appointment anyway.

I have worked with a few of these types of people through my coaching and have noticed a couple of things—for one, this behavior can cause a lot of long-term regret.  Why?  Because other people don’t like waiting around for you and will eventually get frustrated enough that they will look for any excuse to no longer work with you.  Even if people do choose to work with you, the Franklin Planner type zealots could harbor ill feelings toward you for having to wait, and that never makes a situation better.

One of my clients had such a problem with being late that his business partner decided to end their relationship so he wouldn’t have to deal with it again.  My client truly regretted the consequences of this and wanted to know what he could do to change a habit that was so ingrained in him.

The first part of changing the habit is to become truly committed to changing it.  You have to really want it.  The desire must come from you.  So:

Step #1—Ask Yourself if You Really Care if You Are Late?

Check in with yourself and decide if you honestly care if your are late.  Does it matter to you that other people are thinking your behavior is rude?  Does it really matter to you that you are losing business whether you know it or not because people consider you less professional?

If the answer is yes, it does matter to you and you obviously want to change it, not just because your employees, partner, and clients want you to, but for your own character development. If this is the case, then you are ready to proceed to the next step.

Step #2—Determining Where the Hang-Up Is

People are late for different reasons.  It is important that you get as clear as possible, as soon as possible, and drill down to find the answers of why you are late.  Some of my clients have been late because they had no sense of time and just really thought that time should just function at their speed.  When itIf the time worked for them,was time then it should be good for everyone else. for them then it should be time.  

Other clients were guilty of trying to do one more thing before they left for their appointment.  And still others had a hard time figuring out that if they wanted to be at a place at four they needed to calculate what time they should get into the car to arrive on time.
   
Step #3—Implement Structure Based on Your Hang-Up
   
After you determine what the reason is that you are chronically late, then implement a structure that will help you to work around your hang-up.  For example, my husband is often guilty of really having no concept of time. He goes to do one thing, and then another problem comes up, so he goes to handle that, and before he knows it hours have gone by.  So he has learned to preset an alarm on his phone to alert him with a certain note that reminds him where he is supposed to be in his schedule.

I coached the client that tried to do one more thing before he left for an appointment,  to bring that one more thing with him in the car (if possible), and if he arrived early or had to wait for his appointment, he could do that one more thing as he waited.

Step #4 Track and Celebrate

It is important if you are chronically late, to track how often you show up on time, early, and late.  The more you pay attention, the more insights you will have about your patterns.  The more you know where you get hung-up, the better you will be at pinpointing what is in the way.  Often it isn’t the time that’s truly getting in your way, but it is that you are not paying attention or planning ahead.


It always serves better if you have some way to celebrate when you do start changing your pattern for the better.  Make it a game – if you are on time for the next ten times, reward yourself with a movie, read a book that you want, or take yourself out to a favorite restaurant.
   
The fact is, the habit of being late will cause you a lot of problems.  If you take the time and put forth the energy to change that habit around, you’ll love the new habit of being on time or early.